Following completion of the capital increases, the partial renewal of the Board of Directors of MCH Group Ltd., which was approved by the General Meeting on 27 November 2020, took effect on 21 December 2020: James Murdoch, Jeffrey Palker and Eleni Lionaki have taken up their mandates as successors to Karin Lenzlinger Diedenhofen, André Odermatt and Tanja Soland respectively.
Today, the Board of Directors announces further intended personnel renewals: The Board of Directors will propose Andrea Zappia and Marco Gadola for election as new members of the Board of Directors at the General Meeting on 28 April 2021. Andrea Zappia will also be proposed for election as Chairman and successor to Ulrich Vischer, who will step down at the Annual General Meeting as announced. The Board of Directors intends to appoint Marco Gadola as Vice-Chairman following his election.
International experience and network
Andrea Zappia is the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer New Markets and Business of Sky Group and his responsibilities also include SkyStudios and SkyNews/SKyTG24. He started his career in the multinational company Procter&Gamble, where he worked as European Group Marketing Manager. 1996 to 2001, he was Global Sales and Marketing Director for Ferrari and Maserati. In 2003, he joined Sky Italia, where he held various executive positions before becoming CEO from 2011 to 2019. Andrea Zappia is 57 years old, he was born in Tripoli and grew up in Bologna, where he graduated in Economics.
“I am greatly looking forward to this new task if the shareholders place their confidence in me”, says Andrea Zappia. “MCH Group has major potential for prosperous further development. I look forward to helping shape the path to a successful future, working together closely with the existing and new members of the Board of Directors and the management.”
Marco Gadola, born in 1963, was previously a member of the Board of Directors of MCH Group and Chairman of the Audit Committee from 2016 to 2019. From 2013 to 2019 he was CEO of the Straumann Group and is currently Chairman of the Board of DKSH Group and a member of the Board of Directors of various Basel-based companies such as Straumann, Medartis and Tally Weijl, as well as other companies.
Change in the operational management
The Board of Directors of MCH Group has appointed Beat Zwahlen, CFO of the group to date, as new interim CEO. He will be taking over the operational management of the company with immediate effect. Beat Zwahlen joined MCH Group as CFO in May 2018. Over the past few years, he has played a decisive role in both the restructuring and the initiated transformation of the company, and the recent capital increases with Lupa Systems as a new anchor investor were completed under his project leadership.
Michael Hüsler has been appointed new CFO of the company group and is taking over this function from Beat Zwahlen with immediate effect. Over the past 15 years, Michael Hüsler has held the role of Group CFO in various internationally operating companies, working in listed companies for 12 of these years. Since 2017, he has been Group CFO of Habasit International AG. Born in 1972, he lives in the Basel region.
The Board of Directors and Bernd Stadlwieser have mutually agreed to terminate the employment relationship. The Board of Directors is grateful to Bernd Stadlwieser for his valuable service leading the company. “MCH Group would like to thank him for all his hard work over the past, extremely challenging 18 months”, says Ulrich Vischer, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “He has provided many valuable inputs to the necessary transformation and repositioning of MCH Group.”
Ulrich Vischer further underlines the fact that, over the course of the past year, the MCH Group has put in place the financial and structural preconditions for overcoming the corona situation and further implementing the transformation. “With the planned addition of Andrea Zappia and Marco Gadola, the Board of Directors will greatly benefit from additional international industry experience, innovation power and management expertise. The Board of Directors and the Executive Board will work closely together to meet the continuing challenges and to implement the defined strategy. They will do their utmost to lead the company into a successful future.”
